Relates to materials incorporated by reference into regulations

Summary of provisions

Bill §1 amends §102(4)(c) of the Executive Law to exclude certain material incorporated by reference into agency rules from requirements for filing with official libraries. Specifically, an agency would not have to file printed copies of such materials with the Legislative Library and court law libraries, provided that such material is readily available without charge on the Internet. The agency need only identify the address at which such materials can be accessed. (The statute already requires that the text of the rule must include a precise identification of the incorporated materials.)

Bill §1 also reduces the number of copies of incorporated materials that must be filed with judicial libraries from 13 (1 in each judicial district) to 4 (1 in each judicial department).

Effects of present law which this bill would alter

Currently, only Federal statutes and regulations are exempt from the requirement to file incorporated materials in libraries in §102, and the current law requires agencies to provide a copy of such materials to one court library in each of the 13 judicial districts.

Justification

Executive Law §102 sets forth a process for state agencies to incorporate previously-published materials into the text of their rules. This process can be useful when the agency needs to ensure that its rules are identical to regulations of other jurisdictions (e.g., Federal OSHA rules, California auto emission standards) or when it is desirable to adopt national or international standards (e.g., National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Underwriters Laboratories).

The statute requires dissemination of the incorporated materials to a number of official repositories, including the Legislative Library and to one court law library in each of the State's judicial districts. When the law was enacted, Federal documents were exempted from this filing requirement as they were already on file in these locations. Since then, the Internet has emerged as a primary source for access to information. This bill reflects the widespread

electronic availability of information by excluding incorporated materials that are available without charge online from the filing requirement.

The requirement for library dissemination of incorporated materials was added to §102 in recognition of the provisions of Article IV, §8 of the State Constitution, requiring that the Legislature shall provide for the "speedy publication" of all adopted rules and regulations. This charge necessitates that the text of incorporated materials must be available to some degree to legal practitioners and members of the general public. However, historical usage patterns and the ease of transmitting digitized information suggest that the number of judicial filings can be reduced without impairing public access. As a result, state agencies can avoid spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars each year by reducing the number of required filings with court libraries by over 2/3.

Prior legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

State agencies will no longer need to obtain and disseminate multiple copies of publicly-available incorporated materials, and will be able to substantially reduce the number of copyrighted materials they must purchase. It has been estimated that incorporated documents cost on average $50-$75 and that anywhere from 20 to over 50 of such documents are incorporated or updated each year. Depending on the actual number of filings avoided, this bill could result in agency savings ranging from $9,000 to over $30,000 a year without impacting on the availability of information.

Effective date

Immediately.